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Permalink Reply by steve F11music.com on April 18, 2011 at 3:52pm

I've done some more testing and it looks like both IMU boards have a similar problem. It's not all of the sensors so that rules out the ADC chip. I've emailed help@storediydrones.com to see about returning it. Is there something I can test or reset before returning them?

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AdminPermalink Reply by Thomas J Coyle III on April 18, 2011 at 5:56pm

F11,

Did you solder the APM/IMU connectors yourself or did they come pre-soldered? If you did them yourself, you might start looking at your connector solder joints to ensure that they are shiny and clean. Sounds like a connector/solder problem to me.

Just a thought.

Regards,

TCIII

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Permalink Reply by Eric Smith on April 18, 2011 at 7:11pm

Hi F11,

 

I've been following your problem (sorry ur having a difficult time) but I can't help wondering if you have a power problem. The erratic behavior on two different sets of H/W plus the problem with your connectivity. So how are you powering your quad. Have you tested the quality of your power subsystem?

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Permalink Reply by steve F11music.com on April 19, 2011 at 3:41am

That is something I didn't think to check but I'm powering it with this castle BEC. I connect it to the far left set of pins and then I have 3 wire servo cables going from the APM to the receiver.

 

But in most of the recent testing, to isolate things, I'm just powering it via USB with nothing at all connected to the triple row pins.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Smith on April 19, 2011 at 4:34am

Hi F11,

 

Powering from the USB might not be enough. See what happens if you power it from a LiPo. Also, you might think about not connecting the power pins (middle pin in the 3 row) from the receiver. Try a different BEC connection as well. What is the power rating of the BEC.

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Permalink Reply by steve F11music.com on April 19, 2011 at 5:10am

Why not connect the power pin on the triple row? I thought all power and ground pins on receiver were all connected. Should I run a ± cable from APM to receiver? I thought having all 6 servo cables connect to ground and positive would be better in case there was a bad connection. The power rating of the BEC is 10A.

 

Actually that is how I power my larger quad which doesn't have any problems. For this mini quad I connected only the signal wires from the APM to the receiver. Then I have a 3 wire cable going from far left triple pin on APM to battery connection on AR6110e receiver. Then to power everything I left one ESC with it's power cable connected and the other 3 ESCs I cut the red wire. Do you think this Plush-6A Turnigy is not sufficient to power APM/IMU?

 

I really prefer to use BECs always but for this miniquad I was trying to keep everything minimal. I also thought the USB connection would be enough power for it to function propery. I'm using a macbookpro17. I will try a BEC connection and see if the gyros calm down :)

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Permalink Reply by steve F11music.com on April 19, 2011 at 6:06am

I didn't have another BEC available but I used one of the ESCs from the bigger quad kit and I'm still getting the same erratic behavior on the gyros.going to the APM and it was 5v. Now I will reflow all the solder connections.

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Permalink Reply by Sebastian Gralla on April 19, 2011 at 6:39am

USB delivers enough power (for apm, not reciever, xbee or something but this works in most cases, too)

turnigy plush 6A delivers enough power (i had it like this on my quad, switched over to the APMs build in voltage regulator)

 

it's not a power issue, and no APM - IMU connection problem (ADC is connected via SPI, if one connection fails you would get no data, not even wrong data)

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Permalink Reply by steve F11music.com on April 19, 2011 at 3:38am

Yes I did it myself and I did look at them with a 30x loupe and they all look good but today I'm going to reflow them all.

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Permalink Reply by steve F11music.com on April 19, 2011 at 6:40am

I reflowed all the header connections on one set and I'm getting the same readings. This is plugged into 2A ESC and USB.

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Permalink Reply by Sebastian Gralla on April 19, 2011 at 6:45am

ok take a look at your XY-Gyro, looks like it has bad connections or is broken (next to the rele, in the midle)

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Permalink Reply by steve F11music.com on April 19, 2011 at 7:33am

I checked it at 30x mag and it's hard to see the tiny connections. I put conformal coating on it to protect it from moisture and at that resolution it obscures the solder connections. Even if it had a bad connection there, I do not have a fine enough solder iron to fix it. Do you think I should send the 2 IMUs back or is there some other test I can do?

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